Why did my mail carrier leave an envelope saying I owe them a few cents in postage?

Question

OK, so here's the deal. When I checked my mail there was an envelope that said I owe them like 13 cents or something. It was just an envelope that was not sealed and didn't even have my name, address or anything formal about it. I took it up to the post office and they said that was because the mail carrier paid my postage on it or something. She said most people just stick the money in it and leave it in the mailbox. I gave them the few pennies there but it seems kind of suspicious. I mean there was nothing formal about it and it was printed on the envelope (a plain envelope from postal service the "amount due" was written in pencil and circled in pencil) that failure to pay could be a fine of like 300 dollars or something. I mean I didn't get a receipt or anything on it and there was nothing formal about it at all. The woman at the post office said she'd give it to the mail carrier because she was still there. Is this a scam or is this legit? I don't even know what package I was supposedly being charged for. I pay the postage for everything I order when I order it (as everyone does). Shouldn't you get a formal statement if you owe money to the post office or something? How can I know this is legit? Even though it's just a few pennies someone could make serious money off of this if it was truly a scam.

Answer 1

That's the way it works, pretty much. This is a carryover from the old days when there was more trust.



One of the characteristics of a scam is that it takes less work than a real job. Just the cost of printing up the little envelope, and the time to put it in a mailbox, is hardly worth the 13-cent payday. Plus, not everyone will respond. Plus, it's a very suspicious activity going around and putting things in a lot of mailboxes in a row. Not to mention going back to check all the mailboxes in the following days, which the scammer would have to do multiple times, because not everyone would set their mail out at the same time. Not to mention there would probably be some volatile individual who would come after someone fishing around in their mailbox with a 2x4 or a shotgun.



More money could be made just walking up to doors and asking if the people had a few spare aluminum cans to recycle, even if only 1 in 10 houses gave 4 cans.

Answer 2

This means that something arrived "Postage Due," which used to happen a lot more often. If the practice was new to you and you were suspicious, you did the right thing by going to the post office rather than just leaving the money in the box. Because the person at the post office was able to give the payment directly to your carrier, you can now set you mind at ease.



If it were a scam, the person at the post office would not be in on it. Most likely, even your mail carrier would not be in on it. (It's not easy to get a job as a mail carrier. It wouldn't be worth risking loss of the job and even prison time for a federal offense just to pick up a few pennies here and there. A scam would have been committed by someone else putting something into your mailbox and then retrieving your payment before the mail carrier arrived.)

Answer 3

Your package weighed more than 1 ounce or it was oversized. First class postage only covers 1 ounce and certain sized envelopes. You will have to look on the postage website for the exact size covered by first class mail. Anything over 1 ounce in weight, regardless of the envelope requires additional postage. Many greeting cards for instance, require 2 first class stamps because they are heavier than one ounce. Anything of an irregular size also needs more postage.

Answer 4

No, it's not a scam. Apparently, you tried to mail something with insufficient postage (or something was sent to you with insufficient postage), and they're trying to be nice by sending it on and collecting after the fact

Answer 5

it happens rarely but it happens

forget it

pay the pennies one time